


i hate it when you use "ohana" against me

by littlemagician



Category: Football RPF
Genre: M/M, Single Parent Jona
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-06
Updated: 2015-10-21
Packaged: 2018-04-25 02:26:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4943152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlemagician/pseuds/littlemagician
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jona hates how easy it’d be to get spoiled by this, having his best friend living in, helping him with his daughter and just generally making his life easier. </p><p>  <i>or, Jona is a single dad, Thiago's his best friend crashing on his couch. Somehow, they end up raising his daughter together.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It’s a tough everyday work. He balances Luna on his hip as he checks how the pasta he’s cooking is turning out, murmuring words of reassurance; he can just sense her distress before she even starts crying. It would happen any moment now. She hadn’t slept well that night, consequently keeping Jona awake for most part of it, too.

He probably looks like a mess and very much in need of a shower before his first session of the day, and he really needed Gio to pick her up as soon as possible so he could do just that; have something to eat and maybe take a quick nap so he doesn’t tattoo a rose on some guy who asked for a lion.

Luna’s bottom lip is trembles as soon as the doorbell rings, and Jona feels like a terrible father all of a sudden: the first time of many every day.

“Hi. You look like shit,” It’s not Gio on the front door, but Thiago, who looks like he barely slept either and should be at work as far as Jona knows.

“Thanks, you too,” Jona says, but Thiago only grins in response. Jona steps aside to let his best friend inside. “Luna didn’t sleep well last night.” He gives as explanation.

Thiago coos and smiles at the 8-month-old baby, holding out his arms to her. Unsurprisingly, that seems to placate her mood, as she smiles and squirms under Jona’s arm to get to him. Jona lets Thiago take her, rolling his eyes but feeling immensely grateful.

“Is she okay?” He smells the top of her head. “Are you okay, baby? Wanna tell uncle Thiago what’s wrong?” Luna actually giggles at Thiago, who kisses her cheek loudly, bouncing her slightly in his arms.

“Yeah, she doesn’t seem sick, I think. I hope not.” Jona sighs, turning off the stove. “What are you doing here, anyway? Aren’t you supposed to be at the hotel?” Jona asks, referring to the expensive hotel downtown where Thiago worked as a concierge.

“Ok, about that…” Thiago starts. “I need a favor. Big one.”

“You didn’t get fired, did you?” Jona asks suspiciously. “What happened?”

“No, I have a friend covering for me.” Thiago waves him off. “It’s this, um, I don’t even know what’s happening. It’s an infiltration or a fungus or something, they’re evacuating the whole building. It’ll take at least a month to fix, or so I’ve been told. So, I need to crash on your couch for some time. If that’s ok.” Thiago’s literally pouting by the time he finishes, as if Jona isn’t his best friend and he has any doubt he’ll take him in.

“Shit,” Jona says. “That sucks. And do you even have to ask? You can stay as long as you want.”

“For real?”

“Of course, dumbass,” Jona laughs. “But, you do know the deal, right?”

Thiago sits on the couch with an agitated Luna in his arm, who alternates between grabbing fistfuls of his hair or trying to put his necklace on her mouth.

“What deal?”

“You’re holding the deal,” Jona explains. “The deal is trying to pull your hair off.”

Thiago looks utterly confused. “You mean Luna? What about her?”

“I’m just saying, I’m the father of a toddler, Thiago. That’s a lot of nights waking up to her crying and early mornings and, you know, generally my whole life revolving around her.” Jona says, because he knows how Thiago is. Not that there’s anything wrong with partying or drinking or sleeping around, God knows Jona used to, but there’s really not any time in his life for that now.

“Hey, I know, I was already here when she was born, remember?” Thiago chuckles. “Besides, she’s an angel. You’ll even get a babysitter for free. Luna loves me, don’t you, sweetheart?” Luna, right on cue, starts muttering a ‘bahbahbah’, which, as far as Jona knows, is pretty much confirmation.

“Ok, it’s settled then.” Jona shrugs, and Thiago gives him the full, amazing tip-winner smile he probably pulls at the hotel all the time to win customers over. “Just go grab your stuff whenever. I have all afternoon booked with a half sleeve session and a back piece session.” 

“Who’s looking after Luna?” Thiago asks.

“Gio’s supposed to do it. I hope he doesn’t have an emergency work thing, because I can’t cancel on the half sleeve guy again.”

“It’s ok, I can do it.” Thiago says. “I’m free today, anyway. Just finish eating and go get ready, I’ll look after her.”

Jona throws him the most grateful look he can put on. “I’ll tell Gio.”

 

-

 

“There’s formula in the fridge so you can just heat that up if she’s hungry. There’s clean diapers in the second drawer next to her crib, and anything else she needs...” He kisses the top of Luna’s head, and she rubs her eyes tiredly, and then tightens her arms around his neck. His heart breaks for having to leave her all afternoon, especially on days she’s in a mood.

“It’ll be fine, papi, don’t worry too much,” Thiago laughs when he takes her from Jona, but reassures him when Jona glares. “Seriously. You work upstairs, if anything’s up, I’ll just go to you. I’ll try to put her to bed, okay?”

“Fine. I’ll be back by 6 so you can go grab your stuff.” He says, and kisses his daughter again.

It’s not as if she won’t be just one floor away from him, since he opened his own tattoo shop just above their apartment, but he can’t control his own separation anxiety. A two years ago he would never have imagined himself being a father, much less raising Luna alone. Now, just months later, he has trouble leaving her for a few hours, even if he loves his job.

He makes a mental note of checking up on them between sessions if he has time.

 

-

 

“How was she?” Jona asks when he gets home, an hour later than he was supposed to. Thiago’s holding Luna asleep in his arms, half lying on the couch in a position that can’t be too comfortable.

“I think she was just tired. She fell asleep and I tried putting her in her crib but she started whimpering again so I just held her.” Thiago seems tired, too, Jona notices. He takes Luna from him, shushing her as she squirms, but ultimately stays asleep.

“Sorry, man,” Jona says. “You look tired. Do you want me to pick up your stuff tomorrow while you’re at work?”

“Nah, you don’t have to. I’ll have to drop by my apartment to get my uniform in the morning, anyway.” Thiago waves him off.

“Alright, let me put her to bed and get you some stuff.”

Jona thanks god Luna doesn’t wake up when he kisses her goodnight and sets her down carefully on her crib. He heads to his room, grabs a pair of sweats and an old shirt that’ll fit Thiago, some blankets and a pillow.

When he comes back, Thiago is sprawled out on the couch, flipping through channels on TV. Jona throws him the sweats and the old tee. “There’s a clean towel in the bathroom, I think, bottom drawer.”

Thiago grunts, but takes the clothes and heads to the shower. Jona sets the couch as best as he can to make it seem like a bed. The apartment was nice and big enough for him, but he had to turn to guest room into Luna’s, so he really had no choice there. Unless, of course, he offered Thiago to share his bed, which. No. The constant Gio voice inside his head is aggressively against it, considering Gio was the one who had to listen to Jona talking about his unrequited crush on Thiago before Luna was born. (And now, there was Luna, and Jona had no time for that, and even if he had, is not like Thiago would go for him, anyway.)

He orders pizza while he’s at it, (no pineapples, because Thiago would literally kill him), and by the time it arrives they’re both fresh out of the shower and on the couch; Thiago is lying down with his feet propped on Jona’s lap, and they’re watching the rerun of that afternoon’s Celta x Eibar match. Thiago looks good in Jona’s clothes, all relaxed, and he smells like Jona’s shampoo, too.

“You’re gonna have to buy your own shampoo.” Jona says, and Thiago pouts.

“Yours is nicer than mine.” Thiago says. Jona rolls his eyes but doesn’t deny him again.

 

-

 

Thiago works at the hotel from 7 to 4, so Jona conveniently starts booking his clients after that whenever he can, less and less having to bother Gio or Éder to babysit Luna, since Thiago would be home to do so. It wasn’t as if he had to do much, since Jona mostly just got her to sleep before he had to go upstairs to his studio, and Thiago didn’t mind it much, either.

On the fifth day Thiago is there, Luna is full of all the repressed energy a 8-month-old baby can muster up, crawling on her playmat, throwing all her toys across the living room (that was pristinely clean if you ignored the stuffed animals and a plastic small football Gio gave her, a Stitch toy she loved try to destroy, the list went on), trying to put everything non edible into her mouth (TV remote, Jona’s phone), and Jona can’t even try to get her to take an afternoon nap because he knows it’s a lost cause.

When Thiago arrives from work, Jona throws him an apologetic look.

“What’s up?” Thiago asks curiously, dropping his bag on a chair and unbuttoning the 2 first buttons of his fancy red uniform. Jona motions his head to where Luna is squealing, hitting poor stuffed Stitch face first on the floor.

“Hurricane Luna.” Jona explains.

Thiago smiles widely at Luna’s giggles, picks her up from the floor and holds her above his head to kiss her belly. Luna squeals, letting out a high pitched half-scream half-laugh. “Hey sweetie, miss me already?”

Jona’s heart skips a beat at the scene. It’s stupidly adorable.

“She’s agitated.” Jona understates.

“It’s fine, I can take her to the park for a while before it gets dark.” Thiago offers, trying to stop Luna from taking his glasses off his face.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, let me just get changed out of this uniform. I’ll bring you something to eat on our way back.” Thiago shrugs, passing Luna to Jona’s arms.

Jona hates how easy it’d be to get spoiled by this, having his best friend living in, helping him with his daughter and just generally making his life easier.

 

-

 

“Guess who had a bit of ice-cream for the first time in her life and loved it,” Thiago announces when he gets in the Studio, where Jona has just finished up with a client. The girl must be in her middle twenties, wincing as she touches her most likely sore ribs.

“Aw, she’s so cute,” She says. “Is that your daughter?”

Thiago looks at Jona’s hurt expression and laughs. “Nah, she’s his daughter. I’m a hot unpaid babysitter.”

“You’re cute for a babysitter,” The girl says, smirking at Thiago. “She likes you.”

“It runs in the family, I think.” Thiago smiles back, kissing Luna’s forehead. He can see Jona rolling his eyes even when he’s looking at the blonde woman. She looks at him for a couple of second before taking Jona’s pen, writing something down on a piece of paper.

“Well, not just family. I’m Jessica,” She offers him the paper. Thiago takes it with his free hand, noticing a phone number. The girl winks at him, waves at Luna and Jona and sees herself out. Jona’s looking at him, annoyed.

“Don’t use my daughter as date bait.”

Thiago laughs loudly, making Luna laugh too, even if she has no idea what’s going on. “I didn’t even do anything, she just gave me her number. It happens at the hotel all the time. I’m probably not even going to call.”

“I’m sure it does.” Jona snorts, but the problem is, he knows Thiago’s not bragging, and neither is he lying. He has this stupid, natural charm Jona’s seen on every member of his family that just attracts people to him like magnets. And that stupid, boyish smile just makes it worse.

“Hey, don’t be mad at me. I brought you burgers.” Thiago says, pulling out said stupid smile, eyes half shut and looking like he was caught doing something naughty by an adult.

“Well, I’m not seeing any of that, so as far as I know it’s all a lie.” Jona shrugs.

“They’re waiting for you in the kitchen, come on. Bought us a six-pack, too. We can get all nice and cozy for the night.” Thiago waggles his eyebrows, and it’s so ridiculous Jona can’t help but falling for it and laughing.

There were, indeed, two nice burgers straight out of Jona’s favorite place, and they do indeed get comfortable for the night, sipping their beers after Luna’s asleep, Thiago half lying against Jona’s side, complaining about how American football makes no sense.

It’s barely been a week and Jona already feels overexposed to Thiago, too spoiled.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Jona’s almost falling asleep with Luna in his arms – who doesn’t seem tired at all and keeps babbling at the Lilo & Stitch movie she’s watched a billion times – when Thiago comes out of the bathroom, looking every bit the party boy he is, dressed in a tight black shirt and pants, snapback and phone in hand.

“Going out?” Jona asks groggily. Thiago nods, looking down at Luna pouting and making grabby hands at him, traitor she was.

“Yeah, with some of my co-workers,” He says. “Sorry baby, can’t pick you up right now. Don’t hate me.” He says to Luna, who understands enough to know she’s not getting much play time at 9 pm. She clings back to Jona, letting out a little whine of dissatisfaction.

“You coming back late?” Jona asks.

“Probably, yeah. I should take a key, you know, so I don’t need to wake you up too late or too early in the morning.” Thiago suggests. Jona’s tries not to dislike the idea of Thiago going out too much, he had no reason to, except the stupid crush he doesn’t have the time to think about. Thiago’s single and he likes to party, it’s only expected he won’t want to stay in with his best friend and his best friend’s daughter on a Saturday night.

“I don’t have a copy, sorry, you’ll have to wake me up.” Jona shrugs. “I’ll make you one soon. For convenience.”

“Actually I can’t believe I, as your best friend, don’t have one yet.” Thiago says. “But ok, sure. I’m gonna go now, get some rest. Luna, don’t wait up for me, sweetheart.” Thiago kisses Luna’s forehead, then Jona’s.

“Have fun.” Jona murmurs.

 

-

 

It’s 5 am when Jona’s phone goes off, and he grunts into his pillow before getting up. He drags himself to the front door of the apartment, making sure to cause as little noise as possible as to not wake Luna up.

Thiago’s leaning against the doorframe, shirt unbuttoned to the top of his stomach, a couple of bruises on his neck and chest, and his hair is a mess. Jona just hopes he isn’t drunk.

“Had fun?” Jona asks, rubbing the sleep off his eyes, even though it’s pretty transparent Thiago did. He just nods, but doesn’t say anything. His eyes are a bit glazed but he doesn’t seem that drunk, just tired.

Jona makes his way back to his room and Thiago follows, but doesn’t stop in the bathroom like Jona assumes he will.

“I’ll just get a blanket,” Thiago explains.

“Just. Sleep here.” Jona sighs. “You’re tired, the couch is shit. We can share.” He finds himself saying, even though the idea of sleeping with Thiago by his side after he’s probably just fucked some guy or girl in the bathroom of a club ties his stomach in knots.

“You sure?” Thiago asks, bottom lip turned down in a guilty, almost shy pout, and Jona hates that it’s all it takes for him to want to wrap him up in blankets.

“Sure.” He shrugs. Thiago nods. He leaves the bedroom for about 15 minutes, and Jona is almost asleep again by the time he’s back, hair damp from the shower and shivering the slightest bit. He’s wearing sweats but doesn’t bother putting on a shirt, and with the lights on, Jona can see clearly the marks someone left on him. He closes his eyes and pretends to be asleep.

Thiago turns off the light, drags himself to bed and under the covers. Jona has his back turned to him, and doesn’t see or feel Thiago moving for a while, but he can hear his breathing in the silent room. The bed moves and Jona feels a hand on his arm, lips pressing against his hair and his breath too.

“Goodnight, Jona.” Thiago murmurs softly. Then the bed shifts again and, thankfully, they’re not touching anywhere anymore.

 

-

 

By the time Thiago wakes up, Jona’s finishing up making breakfast. There’s fresh coffee and bread, eggs and sausages. Thiago looks still half-asleep, standing in the middle of the kitchen, watching as Jona sets two plates on the table. He’s bothered to put a shirt on now, although Jona knows he’s never bothered being shy about his hook-ups before. Luna’s trying to get both their attentions from the baby chair.

“Morning,” Jona offers. “Coffee?”

“Please, god.” Thiago accepts the mug gratefully.

“Just me, but you can call me God if you want.” Jona smiles. “How’s your head?”

“Morning, sweetie,” Thiago says, smelling the top of Luna’s head before circling the table and sitting down. “It’s okay, I didn’t have that much to drink last night.”

Jona doesn’t really know what to say. Normally, he would tease Thiago about the marks or his hook-ups or whatever, but Thiago felt the need to cover them, and it wasn’t as if Jona wanted to hear him bragging, either.

So they’re silent through breakfast, a bit awkward before Luna starts getting agitated to be taken out of her chair, and only settles down when Jona holds her in his lap. He concentrates on alternating between feeding her and shoving forkfuls of breakfast in his mouth, and has an excuse to not really look at Thiago.

Thiago himself looks, though. Jona can see from the corner of his eyes, Thiago eats while he watches them, small smile on his lips. Jona ignores it.

 

-

 

Two weeks in, it’s difficult for Jona not to get settled into a routine. He has to keep reminding himself that it’s only temporary, Thiago won’t be there to help forever. There’s also the fact that living with Thiago pretty much _gives_ him enough time to remember why, exactly, he has a stupid crush on him on the first place.

It’s always in the flashes of little things Thiago does: when Thiago kisses Luna goodbye in the morning before going to work, or when he gets home and isn’t too tired to take her for a walk in the park, and comes back with dinner for both him and Jona. Or when Thiago practically lies down on him when they’re watching TV on the couch, or always has his feet propped on Jona’s leg, or plays with Jona’s hair until he falls asleep halfway through Barcelona matches or Cake Boss episodes.

And there’s also the fact that they are, in a completely platonic way, sharing a bed every night.

After the first time, Jona just felt too bad leaving Thiago to sleep on his couch – it wasn’t that small, and was actually comfortable to spend a few hours watching TV or taking a nap, but not enough to have a healthy amount of sleep before work. So he offers to share, explaining that the bed is big enough and as long as Thiago doesn’t steal the comforter all to himself or kick him, they’re good.

The good news is that Thiago does none of those things. The bad news is that the last minutes of the night and first minutes of the morning are always, always a torture to Jona.

The last minutes of the night because Thiago basically spoons him for a few seconds, drops a kiss on his cheek or on the hair on the back of his neck, murmurs a goodnight but ultimately, they go to sleep not touching or facing each other. It should be more comfortable like that, right? Right.

The first minutes of the morning because, unconsciously, in the middle of the night, one or both of them _always_ finds a way to touch the other, and that’s how they wake up. Both sleeping on their backs and elbows touching on the space in the middle. Thiago facing his back, both sleeping more on the middle than on opposite ends, much closer than when they fell asleep, Thiago’s hand resting comfortably on his waist. Both sleeping on their sides, facing each other, but not touching anywhere – except for Jona’s foot hooked under Thiago’s.

It doesn’t seem to affect Thiago at all, so Jona just pretends he’s sleeping while he wakes up and gets ready for work. He also tends to kiss Jona’s forehead before leaving, always assuming Jona’s sleeping when he does so.

And, well, that fucks Jona up a little.

That’s one more thing he has to remind himself to let go, because Thiago is just a touchy guy. He’s like that with everyone close to him. It’s _fine_ and it’s _nothing_.

 

-

 

That morning Gio drops by to pick up Luna, because Jona has a full day booked with sessions and he really needed to put more time into work; bills weren’t going to pay themselves and he would soon be running short on money if he kept neglecting clients.       

“Are you sure you’re not too busy?” Jona says hesitantly, putting some last things Luna might need in a bag.

“Yes, Jona, how many times have we gone through this?” He can see Gio rolling his eyes. “Éder’s taking care of everything at the _Cantina_ , it’s fine.”

The _Cantina,_ his brothers’ restaurant, was a business Jona never wanted to be part of. His mother wasn’t exactly happy that out of three children only two decided to stay in the family business, even less considering Jona was a tattoo artist, of all things.

Jona picks up Luna from here playmat. “Ok, you know the–”

“Yeah, I’ve done this before, relax.” Gio waves him off. “Listen, we need to talk.”

Jona stares at him confusedly. Gio has his worried big brother face on, and that was never a good sign. He nods for him to go on.

“How long is Thiago staying?” He asks. Jona sighs. So that was it.

“I don’t know, Gi. Probably another few weeks, why?” Jona’s already only half paying attention to him.

“Nothing, it’s just– This can’t be good for you. I know how you feel about him, and now he’s basically living here, taking care of Luna–”

“Ok, Gio, calm down,” Jona rubs a hand over his eyes. “Look, he’s my best friend, ok? And that’s all, end of story. And he’s good with Luna, he’s helping me a lot.”

“You did fine without him, yeah? I was here to help!” Gio says, but backs off a little when Jona glares. “Fine, fine. You know about your life, I’m not trying to piss you off. I just want what’s best for you.”

“Wow, thanks mom,” Jona laughs humorlessly. “Gonna try to get me to work at the restaurant too, now?”

“Don’t be an asshole,” Gio huffs. He reaches out to get Luna from Jona’s arms, and he puts the bag over Gio’s shoulder. “Just because he’s playing house with you and Luna doesn’t mean he’s going to stick around.  Don’t forget I know Thiago, too.”

“He doesn’t have to stick around, he’s my friend, not my boyfriend.” Jona grits his teeth, and Gio can see he’s already running out of patience. He kisses the top of Luna’s head to say goodbye.

“I’ll bring her back before I have to go to the night shift.” Gio says. Jona hugs him goodbye, because as much as Gio was a pain in the ass, Jona knows that it’s only because he worries about him and Luna. With reason, but Jona wasn’t about to tell him that.

 

-

 

“Hard day?” He asks Thiago, who’s lying down on the couch, arm thrown over his eyes. He grunts.

“I’m exhausted. People are such assholes.”

Jona hums sympathetically, remembering how exhausting Thiago’s work could be. He grabs two beers from the fridge and a tupperware full of pasta with meatballs. He doesn’t bother putting them in the microwave, just grabs two forks and heads to the couch. Thiago automatically sits up to give him space, but leans against him tiredly as soon as he can.

“For someone whose family owns 2 restaurants, your cooking abilities are pretty limited.” Thiago says, fork digging into the cold pasta.

“Fuck you, I can cook,” Jona takes a swig of his beer. “I just choose not to. And if you don’t  want it go do it yourself.”

Thiago grins at him before kissing his shoulder. “Nah, it’s fine. Best cold pasta I’ve ever had.”

Jona rolls his eyes, pretends Thiago leaning into his space, into _him_ is okay _;_ pretends he’s unaffected by coming home to Thiago and talking about their days, eating leftovers and doing all this stupid domestic shit. He downs half his bottle in one go.

“Feels weird when Luna’s not here.” Thiago comments. “I’m getting kind of used to walking around carefully not to step on her toys or hearing her babbling or squealing or crying.”

Jona’s heart does a stupid contracting thing that feels like it’s going to implode. “You sound like me.”

“Well, _you’re_ her dad, you’re like ten times worse.”

Jona doesn’t have time to answer, because right on time there’s a knock on the door. Thiago throws him a look as if to ask ‘you go or i go?’ but Jona just waves him off, gets up himself. As expected, Gio’s there to drop Luna. She rubs her eyes tiredly, arms reaching for Jona as soon as she sees him.

“Hey, _Luna de mi vida,_ Papi missed you,” Jona takes her from Gio, his daughter immediately cuddling up to him. He steps aside so Gio can get inside. “How was she?”

“She was great, played with Fofi all afternoon, now she’s just exhausted.” Gio says, talking about Jona’s dog he had to adopt.

“Thanks again, you know how much that helps me.” He takes the bag from Gio’s shoulder, walking into the living room.

“Hi Gio,” Thiago grins from the couch.

“Hey, Thiago, how’s it going?” Gio smiles tightly. Thiago only shrugs in response, standing up to give him a one arm hug. He turns to Luna, sad smile on his face when he sees how tired she is.

“Baby, you’re tired? I missed you, sweetie,” Thiago coos, kisses the top of his head and misses completely the look Gio gives him, and then Jona. He rolls his eyes at him, and thankfully Thiago’s entirely too busy paying attention to Luna to notice their silent dialogue.

“I’m gonna put her to bed, she’s exhausted. Say bye to uncle Gio, baby.” Luna waves her hand, but soon hides against Jona’s chest again. He holds her close, heads to her room and leaves both of them behind, praying silently that Gio won’t pull a Gio and say something wrong to Thiago.

He refrains from letting out a sigh of relief when he comes back and Gio leaves, and Thiago doesn’t really look like he said anything awkward. With Luna asleep, they finish their beers and put on a random movie. Next thing he knows, he’s being woken up by Thiago’s sleepy voice, and when he moves Jona notices he fell asleep leaning on his shoulder.

“We passed out,” Thiago murmurs, voice heavy with sleep. “Come on, let’s go to bed.” He offers his hand, and Jona isn’t even sure he’s awake, so he takes it and they walk to his room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, what did u think? as always, kudos and comments are v much appreciated and encouraged/encouraging.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> misunderstandings, thiago's internal struggles and poor history of thinking with his dick.

"Put that back, Thiago, that's pure sugar," They're grocery shopping, all three together because Thiago has his own list, and Luna was in a good enough mood that all the people and the stress wouldn't scare her. Jona doesn't even need to look at Thiago to know he's trying to sneak Froot Loops into their cart.

"Tell your father I'm an adult and I can eat whatever I want," Thiago says to Luna, who's sitting on the cart's baby chair, looking at him with wide eyes, hanging on to his every word. It's adorable.

"Clearly." Jona snorts. Thiago puts it back on the shelf anyway, even if much against his will. Jona sighs. "Now I know why my mom never took Gio and I grocery shopping when we were kids."

"You have truly become the ultimate boring dad. I can't believe this." Thiago comments. Jona laughs at him, the bastard.

"Don't whine, we're going to buy real food," He says, putting a few things into the cart while Thiago pushes it forward. "I'm going to the open air market tomorrow, the one where Gio buys all the fresh vegetables and fruits for the restaurant so I can make us something nice, ok?"

"Fine, it's not like you're giving me a choice, anyway." And that's an absolute lie, Thiago knows, and he knows Jona does, too. He likes his junk food, and it's not like he isn't paying for half the groceries, but he likes the idea of Jona cooking them real food much better.

He watches fondly as Jona launches into a story of Gio trying to teach him some dishes, and how he always got too bored and ended up doing it his own way, but Thiago gets distracted by someone approaching them. Shit, of course that would be just his luck.

"Thiago, hey!" Erica approaches them, one of Thiago's ex co-workers he'd been wanting to ask on a date for a while now. Jona trails off from the story he was telling, smiling politely at the girl. Thiago nods.

"Hey, how are you?" He kisses her cheek and she accepts it smiling, telling him she's been well, commenting on the fact that they haven't seen each other in a couple of weeks. "Uh, sorry, this is Jona."

"Nice to meet you," Jona answers, shaking her hand.

"And who's this lovely little lady I see trying to get your attention, Thiago?" She asks, smiling at Luna's arms extended to him, babbling almost angrily in a way he just can't seem like the worst person in the world and not pick her up. She squeals as soon as he pulls her up from the cart and is securely in his arms, laughing when he kisses her cheek playfully.

"That's my daughter," Jona answers for him, looking every bit the proud parent he is.

"Oh," Her eyes widen for a second, then her smile changes to one Thiago can't quite figure out what it means. "That's honestly adorable. You're a lucky man, Jona."

"Um, thanks." Jona says genuinely, ducking his head a little in acknowledgement.

"Anyway, Thiago, it was really nice seeing you, I need to hurry now," She says, kissing his cheek and shaking Luna's little hand playfully.

"Yeah, sure, I'll call you some other time?" He tries, and she nods, looking between him and Jona.

"Absolutely, it'll be nice to catch up so you can tell me all about these two, yeah? I'm very happy for you, Thiago." She says, and Thiago nods confusedly, but mutters a 'yes, sure,' and she disappears through the aisles of the store.

"What–" He starts. "Wait, what do you think she meant?"

Jona grabs Luna from Thiago's arms and puts her back on the cart's chair. She mumbles, clearly not happy, but doesn't threaten to cry or wail when he quickly pulls out her miniature stuffed giraffe, and she seems happy enough that he doesn't need to pull out a pacifier. Thiago watches the whole scene and Jona's weirdly quiet as he does it, then goes back to reading the grocery list on his phone.

"Um, I... Think she thinks I'm your boyfriend." He says, and Thiago's sure he can't be _that_ interested in what type of dehytrated nuts to buy.

"Wait, what? Why do you think that?"

"Well it kind of seemed so when she said she's happy for you, I don't know," Jona shrugs, still not sparing him a glance. Thiago feels something turn in his stomach, something he can't really name - just knows it's somewhere between fear and anxiety but not nausea. "We're grocery shopping together with my daughter..."

"Oh..." Thiago answers dumbly, because, shit. They _are_ grocery shopping together, bickering and _with a baby_ , for fuck's sake, looking every bit like the hipster, modern gay couple next door. Fuck. Jona finally looks at him. "Oh shit. I was... I've always wanted to ask her on a date. Guess I can't really do that now."

Jona rolls his eyes, then looks away again, already walking forward as Thiago is left to push the cart along. "Well, it's not like you can't tell her we're not a couple?" He offers.

"Yeah," Thiago thinks, then, and he knows he should be more uncomfortable with people he wants to date thinking he's already taken and with a baby, especially when it's with his best friend. "But... Effort."

Jona turns around abruptly, stopping in his tracks. "So you're just going to let her think we're a couple because you’re too lazy to correct her?" He looks at Thiago like he can't believe him, and he suddenly realizes maybe Jona is not as comfortable with the assumption as he is.

"I– Well, if it makes you uncomfortable I–"

" _Me_?" Jona shakes his head. "It's whatever, I just thought you'd be the first one to want to clear it up. I mean, I'm not the one who wants to date her."

"Nah, like you said, it's whatever." He says, waiting for Jona's reaction, who just shrugs and stares at him, worrying with his bottom lip between his teeth. It's awkward. For five horrible, endless seconds, they're awkwardly standing in the middle of the aisle, but then Thiago thinks, fuck it. "Come on now, _babe_ , let's finish up. I wanna go home, I'm starving." He smiles, and it works, because Jona lets out this cute little snort-laugh and kicks him when Thiago's by his side.

 

-

 

When Thiago thinks back on it, it was _kind of_ stupid not to correct Erica's assumptions that he was with Jona. He forgets about it for a good week, life with Jona settling in as usual. He's still a couple of weeks away from being able to go back to his own apartment, so every aspect of his life narrows down to him living in with them.

He thinks it's unnatural how quickly he got used to it, being 23 and very much single, but it's nice in a kind of homey way, something he hasn't had in a while, with his dad living in Vigo, his mom too with her boyfriend and his younger siblings, and Rafinha spending the year with his boyfriend in France.

He does it absentmindedly, tapping the polaroid picture of Luna to his desk, taken with Jona's hipster-ass camera. He doesn't overthink it, he has pictures of his brothers and his sister and his dog that now lives with his dad. It's no big deal, but clearly, his co-workers don't get the memo.

"Oh my god," Julia says, propping her eyebrows over his counter, touching the picture with a perfectly manicured finger. "So _that_ is the adorable baby you have now."

Thiago rolls his eyes, doodling on a piece of paper, killing spare time that comes usually in such early hours on a Monday in low season. "She's not my baby."

"Not biologically," Sophie appears out of nowhere beside Julia, cooing at the picture. "Awww, Thiago, she's so adorable, look at those baby curls."

"No, seriously, you guys. She's not my daughter, she’s my friend's."

"Your friend's..." Alexis squints. Thiago sighs, carefully setting his pen and sketch aside, pretending to have work to do so they'll leave him alone. "Aren't you living with him?"

"Oh, he is," Julia smiles mischievously. "Erica told me she met them, said they're an adorable little family."

"Oh my god, Erica's just wrong, okay?" Thiago says exasperatedly. "We're not dating, I'm hogging his couch for a few weeks, you know my apartment is all fucked and it's not like I can even afford to stay in a hotel for two months. He's my best friend, Jesus."

Technically, the only part that isn't true is the couch part, since he and Jona have been sharing a bed for a while, because Jona's too good to let him suffer on the couch. He just prefers not to tell them that, because it'd only prove him wrong. It doesn't even make a difference, because they're all looking at him like he over-explained, like they don't believe him.

"Sorry, it's just. You're living with your gay best friend and his daughter being all domestic–" Alexis starts.

"Wait, how do you know he's gay?"

"I didn't, but now that I know this has an actual chance of becoming a rom-com." Alexis smiles, and Thiago groans, refrains from throwing something at him.

"Just drop it, don't you all have work to do? Like I said, he's my best friend, stop being weird." He says, definitely in a mood now, and he doesn't even know why. Normally he'd even joke with them, but the topic just became touchy to him all of a sudden. They leave him alone, though, so he's left to being annoyed on his desk until there's a new guest to check-in.

 

-

 

“Catch.” Jona says over breakfast that week, throwing a small piece of metal in his direction. His reflexes are quick enough he catches it against his chest. “A key.”

“Uh, thanks.” Thiago says, but his throat tightens and he just doesn’t know why the hell that is, can’t shake off the overwhelming feeling this is important. He looks at the key for a few seconds as if it’s going to answer him why he’s suddenly emotional over a stupid key, but it’s useless. “Thanks.” He repeats himself.

Jona shrugs, but he looks at Thiago like he knows it’s important, too.

 

-

 

He decides not to pass on the invitation to go out clubbing that friday, he has the saturday off and he needed to get laid. All the time spent with Jona and Luna was great, it really was, better than he expected actually; so that’s why he needed to put some distance between his actual life and his temporary one.

It’s barely an hour in when a guy approaches him while he’s standing at the bar, waiting for the bartender to take his order. He’s taller than Thiago, nice body, cute enough in the dark club and under neon lights that makes Thiago sure he must look even better when Thiago can properly see him.

He’s nice, funny, buys Thiago a drink and talks in his ear, says his name is Javi. They dance for a while, and this Thiago is good at, the filthy meaningless dancing and the flirting and he’s not at all surprised when Javi drags him to a dark corner of the wall and presses him against it, kisses his breathless and sucks a bruise on his neck. Thiago’s done this before enough times.

“Take me home.” Javi says, catching Thiago’s earlobe between his teeth.

“Shit, I can’t,” He says, a little out of breath.

“Why not?” Javi asks, clearly not wanting to give up easily. “Wait, you don’t have a boyfriend or a girlfriend or something, right?”

“No! No, that’s not–” Thiago sighs. “I’m living with a friend right now and he has a daughter, so…”

“He’s your mate, he’ll understand.” Javi says, cupping Thiago’s crotch through his jeans. “We’ll be quiet.”

“Fuck, okay, yeah.” Thiago says, even though he has a long history of poorly made decisions while thinking with his dick.

 

-

 

“We have to be quiet.” Thiago whispers, but he’s already feeling guilty before they’re even inside.

He unlocks the door, the key feeling heavy in his hand, trying to make the least amount of noise possible. “Do you want some water or something?”

“Not really,” Javi smirks, pulling at his hands so they can both fall back on the couch. _The couch._ The couch where he and Jona watch TV with Luna and have their meals sometimes and watch football and fall asleep together. Javi starts kissing down his neck but he can’t close his eyes, can’t stop staring at Luna’s toys scattered around and he feels sick suddenly, like he’s about to throw up and fuck, he’s really an asshole from doing this in Jona’s home.

“Shit, no, this isn’t right–” He sighs, pushing Javi away. “You have to go.”

“But–”

“No, you have to go, I shouldn’t have brought you here.” Thiago says, and it’s dead silent for a while before someone speaks again.

“You really do have to go.” Someone says and that. That is not at all Javi speaking, but Jona, standing on the kitchen’s doorway, gripping a glass of water tight in his hand, hair mussed and sleepy-eyed but that does nothing to soften the perfect picture of disappointment he is in the moment.

Thiago’s never been more sure in his life that he fucked something up. Javi whistles, and Thiago almost forgot he was there for a second before he mutters an ironic ‘nice to meet you’ and is out the door as fast as he came in.

“Jona–” Thiago starts, not even sure what he’s going to say.

“Lock the door and turn off the lights.” Jona says coldly, and shit, he’s never spoken to Thiago in that tone, not ever when they fought before. He had sounded angry and annoyed and furious at Thiago before, but he had never sounded so completely disappointed and hurt until now.

Jona makes his way to his room and slams the door shut before Thiago can even begin to apologize.

He sleeps on the couch that night.   

**Author's Note:**

> sooo i was talked into posting this fic then i gave up than talked into it again. tell me how you like it?


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